A study by the Public Policy Institute of California is urging state universities to start admitting more students to meet new workforce demands.
The Institute says California State University should accept the top 40 percent of the state's high school graduates, up from 33 percent. Meanwhile the UC system should accept the top 15 percent of students, up from 12 percent.
Hans Johnson, who wrote the report, says the number of jobs that require college degrees is increasing. If admission policies remain the same, he says he expects California will have a shortage of one million college graduates by 2025. Johnson adds the institute's proposal will cost money.
"By 2025," he said, "increased enrollment rates would mean an additional one billion dollars, or 17 percent more than we would otherwise be spending."
But he says if California doesn't expand higher education it will be less well-off and it'll spend more money on social services.
